Best Selling Books by John Feinstein

WHAT DOES IT TAKE to win a major championship and reach the absolute pinnacle of golf? Through a season of the four tournaments -- the Masters, the U.S. Open, the British Open, and the PGA Championship -- known collectively as the majors, John Feinstein takes us where the television cameras never go, both off the links and "inside the ropes", as he reveals the special challenges and rituals, the frustrations and exhilaration, that mark the lives and careers of the world''s greatest golfers.

The Super Bowl. America''s biggest sports spectacle. Over 95 million fans will be watching. But teen sportswriters Stevie Thomas and Susan Carol Anderson know that what they''ll be watching is a lie. They know that the entire offensive line of the California Dreams have failed their doping tests. They know the owner is trying to cover up the results. The only thing they don''t know is how to prove it. "Every teen with NFL or ESPN dreams will appreciate Feinstein''s latest sports mystery." --VOYA

New York Times bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein exposes the real “March Madness”—behind the scenes at the Final Four basketball tournament. When Stevie wins a writing contest for aspiring sports journalists, his prize is a press pass to the Final Four in New Orleans. While exploring the Superdome, he overhears a plot to throw the championship game. With the help of fellow contest winner Susan Carol, Stevie has just 48 hours to figure out who is blackmailing one of the star players . . . and why. John Feinstein has been praised as “the best writer of sports books in America today” (The Boston Globe), and he proves it again in this fast-paced novel. “A page-turning thriller and a basketball junkie’s bonanza.” —USA Today

Feinstein takes readers inside the locker rooms, the grueling practices, the late-night strategy sessions. They get a close-up look at recruiting, referees, injuries, winning, losing, and the private lives of the game''s biggest stars.

From the author of Raise a First, Take a Knee: John Feinstein''s bestselling classic is "the best-ever account of life on the PGA tour" (Golf Magazine) and a must-read for anyone who loves the game of golf. Traveling with the golfers on the PGA Tour, Feinstein gets inside the heads of the game''s greatest players as well as its struggling wannabes. Meet superstars like Nick Price, who nailed a fifty-foot putt at the seventeenth to win the British Open, and Paul Azinger, who marked his return from a bout with cancer with an emotional appearance at the Buick Open. Go behind the scenes for Davis Love III''s unforgettable come-from-behind victory in the Ryder Cup. In golf, Feinstein eloquently relates, the line that separates triumph from disappointment is incredibly fine. "One week you''ve discovered the secret to the game; the next week you never want to play it again."

"Did I ever tell you about Wilt Chamberlain?" "Did I ever tell you about Bob Cousy?" "Did I ever tell you about Joe DiMaggio?" Whenever Arnold "Red" Auerbach starts a sentence with those six words -- "Did I ever tell you about . . ." -- anyone within earshot should prepare to hear a marvelous story. As a living legend among sports fans, Red Auerbach -- the fiery coach who led the Boston Celtics to nine NBA championships, eight of them consecutive -- has long been renowned for his formidable personality: brash, opinionated, and unfailingly accurate. As a coach, he had a great eye for talent, drafting such Hall of Famers as Bill Russell and Larry Bird, and managed to build a powerful franchise with an abiding legacy. Red never stood still along the sidelines and was never seen without his trademark cigar. Now in retirement, at age eighty-seven, he remains a lively part of the game, still consulted by coaches, players, and general managers. And his admirers continue to be legion. Not long ago a former president postponed a meeting with Bill Gates so as not to pass up the chance to talk with Red. For the past several years, John Feinstein has met regularly with Red Auerbach and his friends in a series of raucous, unforgettable sessions. Out of those smoke-and-laughter-filled rooms have emerged the stories of Red''s life, from his childhood on the playgrounds of Brooklyn to his triumphs at the famed Boston Garden, where he coached for sixteen years. Just listen as Red colorfully recalls all the players and coaches he has worked with and played against: Bill Russell, Larry Bird, Bob Cousy, Wilt Chamberlain, Sam Jones, and Michael Jordan -- you name them, the basketball greats are all here. Red holds nothing back. In Let Me Tell You a Story, Red Auerbach''s unique experiences in sports and John Feinstein''s unparalleled skills as a storyteller combine to produce one of the most richly entertaining books ever written about the game of basketball.

Decades after it spent weeks at #1 on the New York Times bestseller list, A Season on the Brink remains the most celebrated basketball book ever written—an unforgettable chronicle of his year spent following the Indiana Hoosiers and their fiery coach Bob Knight. Granted unprecedented access to legendary coach Bob Knight and the Indiana Hoosiers during the 1985–86 season, John Feinstein saw and heard it all—practices, team meetings, strategy sessions, and midgame huddles—as the team worked to return to championship form. The result is an unforgettable chronicle that not only captures the drama and pressure of big-time college basketball but also paints a vivid portrait of a complex, brilliant coach as he walks the fine line between genius and madness. This anniversary edition features an updated Introduction by Feinstein.

John Feinstein''s illuminating recollections from two decades of interviews with sports legends. John Feinstein''s career is a sports fan''s dream-a lifetime of encounters with the great figures in sports, not just on the field, but in the locker room and behind the scenes with legends like Bob Knight, Dean Smith, Mike Krzyzewski, Jack Nicklaus, Tiger Woods, and John McEnroe. Since his days as a young Washington Post journalist, Feinstein has written twenty-eight books and countless magazine articles and newspaper columns, covering college basketball, golf, tennis, baseball, and very nearly every sport in between. He has told us of victory and defeat, of athletes and coaches we love -- and love to hate. But some of his best stories have been left untold, until now. One on One is an incredible portal into the sports we love-from the box scores and the pageantry of game night and into the hard work and intensity that turn players and coaches into legends.

The #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Season Inside presents a thrilling behind-the-scenes look at the world of professional tennis, with in-depth analyses of players, tournaments, and the inner machinations of the sport. “Hard Courts is the best book on professional tennis that I’ve ever read. . . . You won’t feel the same about the game—guaranteed.”—LARRY KING When I first decided to write a book on tennis, many of my friends in journalism questioned my sanity. After all, they said, tennis is the least accessible major sport in the world. It is the only sport covered regularly by the American media in which there is virtually no locker-room access. . . . I did my best, though, to capture the flavor of a very big, very wide, very chaotic world. In Hard Courts, renowned sports writer John Feinstein brings his expertise to the world of tennis. He introduces us to the key players in the 1990 tennis season, such as Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, and Martina Navratilova, and explores their intense rivalries, personal struggles, and moments of glory. We travel around the world, from the Australian Open in Melbourne to Wimbledon, from the French Open in Paris to the U.S. Open in New York City, getting a fly-on-the-wall account of intense physical—and mental—training sessions, conflicts between players and coaches, and hard-won victories. With Feinstein’s meticulous research and extensive interviews, Hard Courts presents a comprehensive and multifaceted view of professional tennis.

When an on-court fight broke out between the Houston Rockets and the LA Lakers just before Christmas 1977, Rudy Tomjanovitch raced to break it up. He was met by Kermit Washington''s fist. This is the story of how one punch changed two lives, the NBA and how we think about basketball, forever.

New York Times bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein takes readers behind the scenes at the World Series in this exciting baseball mystery. When teen sports reporters Stevie and Susan Carol are sent to cover the World Series, the talk of the tournament is Norbert Doyle—a late call-up for an underdog team. But the more they learn about him, the more conflicting stories they hear. Bit by bit they piece together the shocking truth about this rising star, but once the secret’s out, there’s no going back. . . . John Feinstein has been praised as “the best writer of sports books in America today” (The Boston Globe), and he proves it again in this fast-paced novel.

After winning six of the twelve majors played from 2000 to 2002, Tiger Woods was struggling with his golf swing in 2003, leaving him out of the running at the US open and the PGA. As a consequence, 2003 saw four first-time major champions: Ben Curtis, Mike Weir, Jim Furyk and Shaun Micheel. After their respective upsets, the four players have had little success, however. Micheel and Curtis jumped from obscurity to stardom and subsequently overplayed all over the world. Neither has won another major, and Weir has only won one other major, in 2004. In Moment of Glory, John Feinstein returns to this unlikely year and chronicles the personal and professional struggles the four players have experienced since then. With his great affection for the underdog and extraordinary access, he gives readers an insider''s look at how winning (and losing) major championships changes players'' lives.

It is the tournament that separates champions from mortals. It is the starting point for the careers of future legends and can be the final stop on the down escalator for fading stars. The annual PGA Tour Qualifying Tournament is one of the most grueling competitions in any sport. Every fall, veterans and talented hopefuls sweat through six rounds of hell at Q school, as the tournament is universally known, to get a shot at the PGA Tour, vying for the 30 slots available. The grim reality: If you don''t make it through Q school, you''re not on the PGA tour. You''re out. And those who make it to the sixday finals are the lucky ones: hundreds more players fail to get through the equally grueling first two stages of the event. John Feinstein tells the story of the players who compete for these coveted positions in the 2005 Q school as only he can. With arresting accounts from the players, established winners, rising stars, the defeated, and the endlessly hopeful, America''s favorite sportswriter unearths the inside story behind the PGA Tour''s brutal all-ornothing competition.

America''s favorite sportswriter takes readers on a thrilling and unforgettable journey into the world of college basketball in this national bestseller. Like millions who love college basketball, John Feinstein was first drawn to the game because of its intensity, speed and intelligence. Like many others, he felt that the vast sums of money involved in NCAA basketball had turned the sport into a division of the NBA, rather than the beloved amateur sport it once was. He went in search of college basketball played with the passion and integrity it once inspired, and found the Patriot League. As one of the NCAA''s smallest leagues, none of these teams leaves college early to join the NBA and none of these coaches gets national recognition or endorsement contracts. The young men on these teams are playing for the love of the sport, of competition and of their schools. John Feinstein spent a season with these players, uncovering the drama of their daily lives and the passions that drive them to commit hundreds of hours to basketball even when there is no chance of a professional future. He offers a look at American sport at its purest.

Minor league baseball is quintessentially American: small towns, small stadiums, $5 tickets, $2 hot dogs, the never-ending possibility of making it big. But looming above it all is always the real deal: Major League Baseball. John Feinstein takes the reader behind the curtain into the guarded world of the minor leagues, like no other writer can. Where Nobody Knows Your Name explores the trials and travails of the inhabitants of Triple-A, focusing on nine men, including players, managers and umpires, among many colorful characters, living on the cusp of the dream. The book tells the stories of former World Series hero Scott Podsednik, giving it one more shot; Durham Bulls manager Charlie Montoya, shepherding generations across the line; and designated hitter Jon Lindsey, a lifelong minor leaguer, waiting for his day to come. From Raleigh to Pawtucket, from Lehigh Valley to Indianapolis and beyond, this is an intimate and exciting look at life in the minor leagues, where you’re either waiting for the call or just passing through.

Feinstein follows the Army and Navy football teams through the 1994 season, culminating with an account of the dramatic December face-off, and brings to life one of the oldest and most heated rivalries in American sport.

Tiger Woods has called the U.S. Open "the most difficult national championship." With Open, John Feinstein goes behind the scenes to tell for the first time the full story of how the 2002 U.S. Open Championship came into being-how a public course was transformed into one of the most difficult and surprising in the tournament''s history, and how the greatest golfers in the world rose to its almost insurmountable challenges. The Black course at the public golf club in Bethpage, New York, has long had a mythic status among golfers. Designed by legendary course architect A. W. Tillinghast in 1936, it is known as a work of genius-with long fairways, gorgeous vistas, and roughs and bunkers that stymie all but the very best golfers. It is a course where any player can compete, but its cult reputation means that golfers often have to camp overnight in the parking lot to get a tee time the next day. The 2002 U.S. Open at Bethpage Black was the first time in history that golf''s greatest championship had been held at a true public course. Open is the full drama of that championship, from the moment that officials first considered holding it there until the last putt rolled in at dusk on Sunday. Along the way, John Feinstein reveals the full glory of golf as it''s never been explored before. He digs deep to find out what it really takes to make golf''s most famous event worthy of the champions who compete in it. He tells the remarkable story of the artisans who transformed the Black from a downtrodden and rough-around-the-edges public course to one that top pros hailed as "unbelievable" and "the toughest par-70 I''ve ever played in my life." He also tracks the drama of the masters who battled for supremacy at the Black-Tiger Woods, Sergio Garcia, Nick Faldo, Phil Mickelson, Jeff Maggert-to show how true champions respond to the toughest conditions. Open is the story of people who devote their entire lives to golf, both behind the scenes and inside the ropes. Their struggles and exhilarations as they master the monster known as Bethpage Black make for a story every golf lover will want to read again and again.

Exploring what it means to be a school, a coach, and a player in college basketball''s Final Four, Feinstein exposes the driving forces behind one of the most revered events in American sports. Readers will also find dramatic stories from the officials and referees to the scouts and ticket-scalpers.

A portrait of legendary golfer Arnold Palmer from a New York Times–bestselling sportswriter, with numerous photos included. Over a career spanning more than half a century, Arnold Palmer amassed an astounding record of ninety-two worldwide titles, four Masters championships, a US Open crown, and back-to-back British Open victories, truly earning his nickname “the King”—as well as a legion of loyal fans who came to be known as “Arnie’s Army.” He exuded a charisma that America loved—and even had a drink named after him. In this chronicle of one of the greatest players ever to swing a club, renowned sportswriter John Feinstein provides a vivid biographical portrait of golf’s most beloved icon. Accompanied by Walter Iooss’s superb photographs, The Classic Palmer lets golf lovers travel with Palmer on his journey from amateur to pro, from pro to master, and from master to legend.

In Backfield Boys, renowned sports journalist and New York Times–bestselling author John Feinstein tells a thrilling story of friendship, football, and a fight for justice. Freshman footballers Jason Roddin and Tom Jefferson are a perfect pair: Jason is a blazing-fast wide-receiver, while his best friend Tom has all the skills a standout quarterback needs. After summer football camp at an elite sports-focused boarding school, the boys are thrilled to be invited back with full-ride scholarships. But on day one of practice, they’re shocked when the team''s coaching staff makes Tom, a black kid, a receiver and Jason, a white kid, a quarterback. Confronted with mounting evidence of deep-seated racial bias, the boys speak out, risking their scholarships and chances to play. As tensions ratchet up with coaches and other players, Tom and Jason must decide how much they''re willing to lose in a conflict with powerful forces that has nothing—and everything—to do with the game they love.

Pitchers are the heart of baseball, and John Feinstein tells the story of the game today through one season and two great pitchers working in the crucible of the New York media market. Tom Glavine and Mike Mussina have seen it all in the Major Leagues and both entered 2007 in search of individual milestones and one more shot at The World Series-Glavine with the Mets, Mussina five miles away with the Yankees. The two veterans experience very different seasons -- one on a team dealing with the pressure to get to a World Series for the first time in seven years, the other with a team expected to be there every year. Taking the reader through contract negotiations, spring training, the ups of wins and losses, and the people in their lives-family, managers, pitching coaches, agents, catchers, other pitchers -- John Feinstein provides a true insider''s look at the pressure cooker of sports at the highest level.

Eighth-grade sports reporters Susan Carol Anderson and Stevie Thomas reunite at the U.S. Open tennis championships where they investigate the mysterious disappearance of a top Russian player. By the author of Last Shot: A Final Four Mystery.

"College recruiters are clambering to sign up Terrell Jamerson, the #1 high school basketball player in the country. But not all of these recruiters are straight shooters, and Terrell will have to think fast if he wants to stay in the game"--

Hoping to secure a spot on the school varsity team but sidelined by the coach''s more experienced son, Alex helps win a key game when his rival is injured, a situation that is complicated when he is wrongly accused of using steroids.

From legendary sportswriter and #1 New York Times bestselling author John Feinstein, a deep dive into the most coveted and hallowed position in the NFL. "Another must-read from a master of long-form sports journalism."--Booklist, starred review In the mighty National Football League, one player becomes the face of a franchise, one player receives all the accolades and all the blame, and one player''s hand will guide the rise or fall of an entire team''s season--and the dreams of millions of fans. There are thirty-two starting quarterbacks in the NFL, and their lives are built around pressure, stardom, and incredible talent. In his most insightful book yet, John Feinstein shows readers what it''s really like to play the glory position and to live that life--mapping out a journey that runs from college stardom to the NFL draft to taking command of the huddle and marching a team down the field with a nation of fans cheering. Centering on five NFL starting quarterbacks--Alex Smith, Andrew Luck, Joe Flacco, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Doug Williams--Quarterback provides readers with incredible inside access to the locker room, huddle, and heat of battle. Through spectacular moments and embarrassing defeats, this is as close as most of us will ever come to experiencing life in the most glamorous position in America''s greatest game.

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Season on the Brink comes a sweeping, vivid chronicle of Duke University’s 1978 men’s basketball team: their meteoric rise to the NCAA, the aftermath of this near-victory, and the impact on their present-day lives. “As definitive as any book has been about a college athletic team.”—Houston Chronicle In 1977-78, the Duke University basketball team went from last place of the ACC to within seconds of winning the NCAA championship game. They were a team with only one senior, led by two freshman forwards, a sophomore center, and a junior guard. They were one of the great Cinderella teams of all time. An entire nation not only took them to heart, but expected a basketball dynasty. It didn’t quite work out that way. . . . Forever’s Team takes us inside a team of boys seemingly destined for success and follows them until, twelve years later, they are grown men—coping with dashed dreams, with truth, with life. John Feinstein presents a dramatic profile of the team’s coming-of-age—capturing not only the drama, the excitement, and the triumphs of college basketball, but also the uncertainty and adversity of life after athletic stardom.

#1 New York Times bestselling author John Feinstein returns to his first love--college basketball--with a fascinating and compelling journey through a landscape of unsung, unpublicized and often unknown heroes of Division-1 college hoops. "Uplifting...[A] heartfelt missive to college basketball." —The Wall Street Journal John Feinstein pulls back the curtain on college basketball''s lesser-known Cinderella stories--the smaller programs who no one expects to win, who have no chance of attracting the most coveted high school recruits. To tell this story, Feinstein follows a handful of players, coaches, and schools who dream, not of winning the NCAA tournament, but of making it past their first or second round games. Every once in a while, one of these coaches or players is plucked from obscurity to lead a major team or to play professionally, cementing their status in these fiercely passionate fan bases as a legend. These are the gifted players who aren''t handled with kid gloves--they''re hardworking, gritty teammates who practice and party with everyone else. With his trademark humor and invaluable connections, John Feinstein reveals the big time programs you''ve never heard of, the bracket busters you didn''t expect to cheer for, and the coaches who inspire them to take their teams to the next level.

Beyond golf''s polished surface there lies a world not often seen by the average fan. The caddy sees everything - the ambition, the strategy, the rivalries, the jealousies - that occurs behind the scenes. Award-winning John Feinstein, America''s favourite sportswriter, got one of golf''s legendary caddies to reveal the secrets behind the most popular sport of our time. Bruce Edwards was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig''s disease in January 2003, a progressive disease that attacks nerve cells in the brain and the spinal cord, but he dominated coverage of the 2003 US Open. This is a position not usually bestowed on a caddy, but Edwards was no ordinary caddy. In 1973, after forgoing college, Edwards walked on the course behind a young Tom Watson and never looked back. Watson would go on to win eight major titles with Bruce Edwards by his side. Edwards continued to do the job he had dedicated more than half his life to right up to his death in April 2004, aged 49. This is a moving, dramatic and thoughtful book about a life devoted to sports.

In the NFL there is only one certainty: that every day, someone will have to be the Next Man Up. Football is an unrelentingly punishing sport, played and practiced at undiminished intensity, and it devours its players. Confronting injuries, trades, and the grim reality of competition, every NFL team prepares constantly for the likelihood -- the certainty -- that even franchise players can go down at any time. And someone new must be ready, trained, and primed to step in at the highest level. Bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein persuaded one NFL team to lift the extraordinary secrecy that shrouds the sport and let him see how a team operates at the closest level. One team let him join every practice, every coaches'' meeting, every players'' gathering, every strategy debate. From the give-and-take of draft day, into the grinder of summer training camps, and from 100-degree practice games to the last game in frigid conditions, Feinstein reveals how a football team works -- or fails to work -- as no writer has done before. Next Man Up unveils rituals (what a coach tells a player at the moment he cuts him); rules (the inanities of league-appointed "uniform Nazis"); conflicts (the scouts vs. the coaches, the general managers vs. the agents, the offense vs. the defense, the special teams coaches vs. everybody); money (how much a journeyman makes, and how his life differs from the multi-million-dollar-a-year star players)-every nuance of a team''s life, from the owner''s goals to the coach''s day-to-day travails to the feeling of the sleet-soaked ball in the hands of a receiver on artificial turf. The access John Feinstein enjoyed allows him to discuss with equal understanding the owner''s management strategy, the coaches'' and coordinators'' plans for each new game, and how it all affects the players themselves. Anyone who loves football -- any team, in any era -- will savor the thousands of details revealed here for the first time, and the extraordinary drama that goes into following week after week, the most sensational sport in America.

After the governor of Maryland is assassinated, an investigative reporter uncovers an insidious plot that stretches far beyond the state borders in this “captivating political thriller” (Kirkus Reviews). “[An] entertaining fiction debut.”—Publishers Weekly Reporter Bobby Kelleher’s routine day in the Maryland capitol is shattered when Governor Barney Paulsen is assassinated during a public speech. Determined to bring the murderer to justice, Bobby teams up with his colleague and embarks on a relentless pursuit of the truth. He initially suspects the leader of a radical feminist group, who has not-so-secretly been supporting a gubernatorial candidate of her own. But once he discovers a right-wing extremist—the ex-head of the KKK with his own motives for wanting the governor gone—also attended the speech, Bobby worries he may just be in over his head. As the investigation deepens and alliances are uncovered, Bobby stumbles on a shocking and dangerous conspiracy—and realizes that if he’s not careful, he could be the killer’s next target. . . .

It''s the book in which America''s favorite sportswriter returns to the arena of his most successful bestseller, A Season on the Brink. It''s the book that takes us inside the intensely competitive Atlantic Coast Conference & paints a portrait of how college baskettball is coached & played at the highest level. It''s the book that takes us onto the courts, into the locker rooms, & inside the high-pressure world of the talented coaches who have helped make the ACC''s nine colleges - Duke, North Carolina, North Carolina State, Clemson, Georgia Tech, Virginia, Maryland, Wake Forest, & Florida State - world-renowned for their championship basketball teams. The author''s afterword to this edition will recap the ACC''s current season & preview the 1998-99 rivalries.

Bestselling sportswriter John Feinstein kicks off a new series for middle grade featuring Alex Myers, a student athlete who tries to take on the sports establishment in his new town. Alex Myers is a quarterback, but from the first day of football practice, it’s clear that that position is very much filled by the coach’s son, Matt. Alex has the better arm, but Matt has more experience—and the coach’s loyalty. Alex finally gets a chance to show what he can do when Matt is injured, and he helps win a key game to keep the Lions’ bid for the state championship alive. But just when his star is rising, Alex gets blindsided—the state has started drug testing, and Alex’s test comes back positive for steroids. Alex knows that’s not right. But he doesn’t know if it’s a mistake—or if someone wants to make sure he can’t play. . . . John Feinstein has been praised as “the best writer of sports books in America today” (The Boston Globe), and this first installment in the Triple Threat series is his most thrilling and suspenseful novel yet. Fans of Mike Lupica, Tim Green, and Paul Volponi will want to check out The Walk On, and its companion, The Sixth Man. “A cliffhanger of a football novel bristling with social, personal, familial and ethical issues to complement the gridiron action. . . . All the goods for the sports enthusiast—and more.” —Kirkus Reviews

In fascinating detail, Feinstein takes readers through every step, every thorny hole, every bitter rivalry of golf''s greatest tournament. The Bethpage course was so challenging that only one player finished under par; this was golf at its most intense. 16-pages of photos.